Noah looked at his mother and gave a small nod, his gaze drifting for a mont as the warm scent of the rice and soup still lingered in the air.
A quiet mont passed before he said, "More recently... the idea of good and evil was brought up to ."
His mother’s eyes sharpened imdiately, her ladle stilled halfway through another stir. She turned her regal face toward him with a calm but direct voice. "Who brought such a thing up? Is it another woman? Because I don’t think you would even be entertaining anyone else with thoughts and ideas unless she had... certain qualities that you appreciate greatly."
Noah gave a rare smile, knowing her tone was a mix of teasing and sharp intuition. "It’s just an extrely powerful existence with an ideology I haven’t quite resolved yet. She says that for any possibility of power from here on out, one has to leave behind the idea of good and evil. That good and evil are subjective. That power has to be taken and devoured from others, and that judging others slows growth. One should act freely and do whatever is necessary for advancent and survival."
Alia Osmont grew quiet. She spooned a bit more soup onto her plate, took a slow bite, and said nothing for several monts. Then her voice ca, calm yet piercing. "Do you think you’re good or evil?"
"..."
Noah didn’t respond. Not imdiately. He looked down into his plate, seeing not a reflection, but the vastness of what he had beco.
His mother chuckled gently, the sound like a familiar lullaby, and said, "Well? If it’s hard to answer, then let ask you sothing simpler. How many beings has my son killed?"
...!
The question struck heavy. Noah remained silent again, but this ti, his expression shifted. He knew the answer. Of course, he knew the answer. It was engraved in his Existence!
"You know the number" she said softly, watching him. "And if you took that number and told it to anyone- if we were still on that little blue world of ours before the apocalypse- you would be seen as a crazed, bloodthirsty killer. You would be called evil. Worse than those commiting genocides."
"...!"
She continued speaking with calm confidence as she waved her hand, summoning a glowing bunch of ripe bananas. They floated gently over to the table, and she peeled one with a graceful flick before passing one to him.
"But...my son is not evil," she said. "Because you’ve saved countless others, haven’t you? From entire Frequencies of Existence? From horrors that would’ve consud their entire Wheel of Existence?"
She took a bite of the banana, her eyes never leaving his.
"That woman you’re speaking to is half right. Good and evil are subjective. My son will always be good to no matter what he does. You could co here and tell you brazenly destroyed trillions upon quintillions, and I might sigh, shake my head, and make an excuse for it. To others? You will be evil regardless of your reasons. So... the distinctions of good and evil don’t matter. What matters is that what you do... has purpose."
She leaned forward slightly, setting her banana down.
"If you kill, let it be with purpose. If you save, let it be for a purpose. If you take another woman- and truly, this hobby of yours, I still don’t know where you get it from- but if you increase your already ridiculous harem, let it be for a purpose."
"...!"
Noah couldn’t help but smile as he listened. His mother always had a way of centering him.
She reached across the table, placed a hand over his, and smiled as she finished.
"Not good or evil. Just be who you’ve always been, my son. Be... quintessential."
HUUM!
His existence buzzed as his Purity surged by a trendous amount.
The words rippled through his Existence like a declaration burned into the fabric of who he was.
And he, sitting under the sapphire sky of a quiet realm, surrounded by the softest truths, nodded once.
Yes.
Quintessential!
---
In the Paradoxical Prison.
Noah stood still as the runic paradoxical brand on his palm shimred with deep obsidian light. The mark of the Warden, carved with paradoxical authority, pulsed like a second heart.
Moiraine floated behind observantly.
Before him, the sealed coffin of black crystal was translucent. Runes across its edges shivered as the marking drew near, and with a flash of ancient permissions, granted by an unknown decree, a doorway opened within.
Inside, curled in a realm of compressed sacrifice and silence, the old woman stirred.
Her eyes, once closed for what may have been billions of years, blazed open. Raw, haggard breath tore from her lungs as she sensed change.
She could see...and feel!
"A weak...Primarch?" she hissed through dry, cracking lips. Her voice echoed like broken blades scraping against steel. "What trick is this? What is going on?!"
The darkness around her surged.
From her twisted fra spilled forth Lattices. Tens of thousands of them.
Existential Dinsional Lattices born of the True Source of Sacrifice. They howled into existence, each one a cry of loss, each one demanding an offering.
Noah did not flinch.
He stepped through the threshold, his voice echoing against the sheer darkness that had beco her reality. Two words followed him like falling judgnt.
"Fealty, or death?"
...!
From one hand blood the Lattices of Fealty, solemn and sovereign. From the other- Loot, brilliant and terrifying, spinning with spirals of acquisition and dominion.
The prisoner’s face twisted. Rage, insult, and despair blood all at once.
"After everything? You lock here and then send a fledgling Primarch to mock ?! Fuck all the way off!"
BOOM!
A roar thundered out from her aged throat, and like a crashing ocean, her Lattices surged.
They swept toward Noah with the desperation of soone long forsaken. A final stand, a last clawing strike.
And yet...
They touched nothing.
...!
The Lattices of Sacrifice stopped re inches from his skin, distorted and stalled by an invisible field.
No golden shields. No flashy power.
Just stillness. And resistance.
True Absolute Existential Resistance.
Noah’s body currently held 40% in each of the ten major Resistance types.
In Origin Resistance, he held 65%.
The total was a staggering 425% collective Resistance.
Put simply, unless soone’s collective Resistance was even close, their powers could not touch him.
Imagine throwing feathers at a glacier and expecting it to lt.
That’s what her Lattices of Sacrifice were doing.
Noah stared at the swirling, useless blades of Sacrifice, the power of a peak Primarch unraveling before him.
Then, he nodded coldly.
"Death it is."
...!
The True Source of Loot pulsed out.
Thousands of Existential Dinsional Lattices swept forward. Each one glead like a perfect blade of shimring desire, vibrating with coded authority to seize, break, and claim.
The woman fought back, screaming curses that echoed through the domain.
But against Noah’s sheer Resistance- her defenses folded.
Her power, her will, her fate...were devoured.
The Lattices of Loot tore through the darkness like reaping stars, and within seconds, the twisted form of the ancient entity began to bend.
Her body cracked unnaturally.
Bones folded inwards.
Skin warped, shedding the appearance of life.
Her existence twisted- until it compressed into sothing beautiful and cold.
A pristine white-gold Cache.
It floated in place of her body, gleaming with potential. The Lattices of Loot spiraled down and folded themselves away as a prompt shimred into existence before him.
|The Living True Source of Loot seeks to unveil unfathomable glory.|
Noah’s gaze did not blink.
A day ago, he would’ve struggled to touch a peak Primarch.
Now? He dismantled one with a single True Source.
And this...was just the beginning.
This prison- no, this realm of conquest- was filled with others.
Primarchs!
Masters of Existence!
His eyes shone brightly.
Power was not just within reach. It was begging to be taken.
Behind him, Moiraine remained silent.
Her golden hair shimred with Complexities unseen, her arms folded as she watched the young Living Paradox she’d just fed his first taste of dominion!
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